Former Top Chef Canada competitor takes over as executive chef at Okanagan College restaurant

Photo: Okanagan College

Chef Ruth Wigman is the new executive chef at Infusions, the on-campus restaurant at Okanagan College in Kelowna.

It’s an infusion of new ideas for Infusions restaurant at Okanagan College.

Former Top Chef Canada competitor Ruth Wigman is the new executive chef at the OC restaurant, which is staffed by Culinary Arts students.

Most recently, Wigmam worked at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel. Before that, she was at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. When she appeared on Top Chef in 2014, she was working at a restaurant in St. John’s Newfoundland.

In January of last year, she was also featured on Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay.

“I’m looking forward to sharing my passion for the culinary world with student chefs. Their energy and ideas are contagious. It will be my role to help them experience what it is like to work in a restaurant and show them how we can be inspired by local foods and the region in the dishes we prepare,” said Wigman.

She has joined the Infusions team just in time for the local food festival Dine Around, which runs from Jan. 18 to Feb. 9 at several restaurants around the Central Okanagan.

“We’re thrilled to have a chef of Ruth’s caliber joining our team and bringing a new excitement to Infusions,” said Cari Jahns, manager of Culinary and Pastry Arts at Okanagan College. “The Okanagan Chef School is well-known and becoming more and more in-demand, because of the reputation of our Red Seal Chef instructors, and thanks to the incredible support we have from local partners in the food, beverage and restaurant sectors across the region.”

The on-campus restaurant at the Kelowna campus of Okanagan College is open to the OC community and the broader public. It gives Culinary Arts students a chance at a hands-on experience that complements the instruction they receive in the classroom.